WHY DO NON BELIEVERS GO TO HELL
WHY DO NON BELIEVERS GO TO HELL …THE REST OF THE STORY
2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Oswald Chambers, that great man of God tells us that “Sin is a fundamental relationship: It is not wrong doing, but wrong BEING. Deliberate and emphatic independence from God”
How true that is! Before Eve was deceived by the serpent, before that “deliberate and emphatic independence from God” that Mr. Chambers
calls sin, Adam and Eve had a oneness with God. They knew each other intimately. Their relationship was open, relaxed, and loving. They walked together in the “cool of the day”…….what a wonderful picture that is!!!
Strolling along in the perfect garden with our Creator, the God of Eternity!!!
They were in total trust and total submission to their Loving God and Creator.
But after that fateful day, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God. Their relationship had changed. Actually, their relationship had ended. They were no longer at ease with God. They were afraid of Him seeing into them. It was more their inward nakedness that they were ashamed of than their outward nakedness.
This is Sin…that brings on wrong doing. Taking the fruit was
an act of sin, but before that was done, there had to be a change in their attitude.
One of the first things Eve did was to question God’s goodness. When the serpent said she would not surely die, he called God a liar, and by her actions, she showed that she believed him, and at that moment, she relinquished her total trust and submission to Almighty God. Adam made the same choice, to the same end.
Their relationship to their Beloved Creator ceased at that moment. They backed off from Him. They were no longer intimate with Him, as they were before. Instead, they exchanged the oneness they had with Him for the same counterfeit relationship that they now had with the devil. Biblical words are much more profound than our English words in our daily talk. We have lost the true meaning of words and carelessly say things as if the word was meaningless. Not so with God’s Word. The word for “know” or “knew” means an intimate relationship with someone…physically and emotionally. It is used for sexual intimacy as well as a oneness of all emotions, such as what Adam and Eve had originally with the Lord. But now, with the bond they made with the devil, they had a relationship with the devil, as well as God.
In Genesis 3:22, God says that they have become “like Us”…in the “knowing good and evil”—in other words…with a relationship of communication with the devil as well as God. They are no longer innocently just walking and talking with their God in the Garden, but they have a third being in on the conversation, and this is why God could not let them eat of the Tree of Life and live forever, carrying that relationship and open communication with the evil one into eternity.
This is why He had to put into action, His plan from eternity (because, of course, He knew what would happen)…to have Jesus become Sin…not just to forgive our individual sins, although that is a very important part of it, but to take on that first Sin…that first relationship split….to give us the choice of with whom we want that unique relationship. …God or the devil.
When Christ put Himself on that cross for our Sin/sins, He tore apart that dual relationship that was caused by the first sin, and He gave us a choice. We can once again have a relationship with God alone, without that inherited relationship with the devil….eventually, at the end of time, when we have
“endured to the end” and “fought the good fight” …staying with, and listening only to the Lord, amidst the screaming and whispering of the evil ones. By submitting totally to the Lord, and trusting Him totally again, like Adam and Eve did in the beginning, He will take us through whatever He wills for us to endure, and He will draw our eyes and our hearts to Him.
This is why those who do not accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ…both His substitution for our sins, and total submission to His Will in our lives….will end up in hell, because they still are carrying that relationship with the devil, and without accepting the victory that Jesus won for each of us, they are rejecting Him, and making the same choice Adam and Eve made, to hold onto Sin, which is, as Mr. Chambers said, “deliberate and emphatic independence from God”, which leaves the person with the other relationship, that of the devil. God will have no choice but to let that person go to the one he chose…in hell.
Whatever is His plan for us, He will see us through to the end of time. This world is not the end of His plan. Heaven is not our final home. This life is for us to develop our relationship with Him to what it should be, and reject any relationship still lingering with the evil one. We must return to that total trust and submission enjoyed in the Garden.
God bless you in your walk with Our Lord.
Live in the Light of Our Lord 